1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system for generating a print based on order information requesting printing of an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital photographic service systems for carrying out digital photographic services such as printing users' digital image data obtained by photographing with digital cameras, and providing the digital image data to users by recording the data in CD-Rs have been known. As one form of such systems, a network photographic service system for printing image data of users by transferring the image data and order information describing a requested quantity of prints and the like to a printing order server via a network such as the Internet has also been proposed.
In such a network photographic service system, in order to provide digital photographic services to users, printing of image data and delivery of prints are carried out in collaboration with an order reception agency for receiving orders from the users, an order reception site for receiving the orders from the agency, an order reception center for relaying the orders from the order reception site, and a laboratory for generating prints. More specifically, in the case of a system comprising order reception agencies, order reception sites, an order reception center, and print generation laboratories, each of the order reception agencies receives image data and order information from a plurality of users and each of the order reception sites receives the image data and the order information from the order reception agencies. The order reception center receives the image data and the order information from the order reception sites. The content of the order information ranges widely from a print size to trimming specification. Therefore, some of the print generation laboratories cannot deal with the order information in some cases. Consequently, the order reception center transfers the image data and the order information to one of the laboratories that can process the order, based on the content of the order information. In this manner, the print generation laboratory carries out printing based on the content of the order information. The order information also describes where and how the prints are received. By this information, a user can receive the prints at a desired place (such as an agency) or by a desired method (such as mailing). Other forms of network photographic service systems, such as a system in which users directly place an order with an order reception center and a system in which an order reception site directly transfers image data and order information to a print generation laboratory without involving an order reception center, have also been proposed.
The prints generated by the laboratory are checked by an operator of the laboratory for their quality and quantity, and provided to the user or an agency specified by the user. However, printing is not carried out or the prints are not provided to the user in the case where the image data whose printing is requested have been damaged or represent a faulty image such as an entirely black or white image or an ethically questionable image. Therefore, the actual quantity of prints provided to the user is different from the requested quantity specified in the order information. Consequently, the exact quantity of the prints cannot be understood by simply referring to the order information. Especially, in the case where a bill is issued to the user or to the agency, the bill charges more than for the actual prints if the order information is simply referred to.
Therefore, the operator in the laboratory conventionally prints the order information at the time of examining the prints and corrects the quantity by manually checking the images that have not been printed. This checking result is then sent to a system issuing the bill or to the agency, and the actual quantity is notified. However, using the printed order information for correction of the quantity requires manual correction of the order information in the system issuing the bill or in the agency. As a result, this operation is troublesome and inefficient.